In "Jamaica mode" what is an acceptable amount of waiting time for a great meal?

[DubWise]

This topic totally interests me. You can tell they're trying to speed things up.. they must be realizing that it hurts business. What I think is that reasonable should be the norm. An hour for dinner? That's not unreasonable. If it's busy maybe even a little longer. Same thing for lunch, but a half hour. If it's way over for either of those.. it had better be pretty good or it had better be busy. Over an hour for breakfast and it's dead? That's just bad service.. in any country. You're charging money you need to act like it. Internet is totally leveling this playing field in my opinion. Power of public opinion.

[Debrahmw]

Like other responders, I try to enjoy the view or go swimming, etc. I try to prepare for the fact that it will be a wait.

If you are starving or in a hurry, let them know right away! Say..."I am diabetic and I need something to eat while I wait for my meal to come, what do you have that could be ready right away?" or "I hate to be a pain, but we need to eat right away, what would you suggest?" The problem is when you are not prepared and you are hungry and wait and wait. I just keep on trying to remember, they are making the food from scratch...this is not a fast food place, that is why I am there!! Generally speaking, on vacation, people actually aren't in a hurry anyways. We have just gotten used to getting food slapped down in front of us in 10-15 minutes. I live in Canada but I have gone to quite alot of u.s. restaurants and diners and I don't know how they get all that food out there so quickly....it's uncanny. Food takes time.

[northcoast]

N. American restaurants tend to have everything prepped & refrigerated ahead of time (like all seasonings & veggies chopped up, or pasta pre cooked aldente & then just dunked in hot water or veal, chicken or eggplant parm already breaded & fried & just needs to be layered with sauce & cheese & stuck in the oven)....also, saute dishes are quite quick to do. Many "stewed" Jamaican dishes are made from scratch from chopping the seasonings to actually "stewing" the meat....it WILL take awhile. Many Jamaicans don't use a chopping board either which cuts the "chopping" time way down. I don't think they're used to moving efficiently in the kitchen much, evidenced in the "wait" time.

[shellyk]

LOL Xtabi volunteers to make food for me even when not hungry if I have been there long time and not eaten. I once was hungry and ordered gilled cheese and fries and it came in less then 15 minutes. Cosmo's, Aqua,LTU, and Oceanview are all even, i would say definetely under 30 minutes each even when busy. Longest I ever waited was at 3 dives and I actually chased down the waitress after waiting 15 minutes or so for her to stop by me to order then she came to me probably 20-25 later and then over 35-40 for my chicken and rice. When dining alone that gets VERY long and boring.

[Kolya]

I've placed my order on Monday for some curried goat on Thursday . . . some things take time . .

[rastagal]

I don't even care. I make sure to bring plenty snack so I never go anywhere super hungry knowing there is usually a wait..now waiting on drink for a long time is a whole other story man...no can do!

[Big_frank]

I don't think we've had a problem in recent years waiting for food.
But, I'll relate a story about my first trip to Negril in Feb. 1998 when we had lunch at a restaurant on the "land" side near Samsara one day.
Our friend wanted an egg and toast.
That sent the entire restaurant into a tizzy.
A little boy was dispatched to the store to buy an egg and he ran from the property down One Love Drive and was back about 15minutes later.
Then the egg had to be prepared, and when the rest of us finished our lunch, the egg was finally delivered to our friend.
We laugh to this day because the toast and coffee was like 3 U.S. dollars and the single egg was 4 dollars more.
We always joke about 4 dollar eggs.

[poolguywindsor]

I have not really ever had long wait times any of the places I have been, and I am not very patient. 3 Dives used to take longer but the last few times I have been it was fairly quick.

[tbay]

we waited almost 3 hours at Kuyaba in Feb. There was 8 of us at our table and it was pretty busy when we got there and by the time we got our meals there was no one left in the restutant at all. We believe that our order got misplaced but it was a disappointing situation since we were with people who had never been and we had raved about the food and service since we had gotten there(I had dreamed about the crab cakes more than once and could not wait to have them again) and this was our last group meal with some of our wedding guests
Unfortnately by the time the food got there everyone was so hungry and annoyed that no one really enjoyed their meals, they just scarfed them down and wanted to leave. They did give us each a free drink for the wait, its just too bad they did not live up to all the hype we had given them!

[Mrs stuck]

3 hr's is a very long time...even with a free drink!